Teachers Learning Together

Have you had any experiences with learning with and from other teachers that you think should be included on this page? Click HERE to let us know!

Math for Identity and Belonging Community Series

Inspired by the movement to rehumanize mathematics, the Adult Numeracy Network hosts community series called Math for Identity and Belonging. Previous offerings have included: Measuring a Meaningful Place (Fall 2021) and Creatively Representing Data (Winter 2022 and Winter 2023). For more information, please contact Mark Trushkowsky at mark.trushkowsky@cuny.edu

Math Teachers' Circles

Math teachers circles are a model of professional development where teachers do math together to learn math together.

To find an existing local math teachers' circle near you, check out the Math Teachers Circles Network: Building Math Communities. They also have resources for starting your own math teachers' circle.

To learn about the work of math teachers' circle created in 2014 specifically for adult basic education teachers, visit NYC Community of Adult Math Instructors (CAMI).

The New York City adult math teachers' circle has moved its meetings online and opened them to anyone who wants to attend. We meet twice monthly to do math together and talk about teaching. Please join us!
If you have any questions, (including how to join!), please contact Eric Appleton at eric.appleton@cuny.edu.

Fueling Teachers' Passion and Purpose. This article was written by the leaders of the Montana Math Teachers Circle. It comes from DEC 2020/JAN 2021 issue of Education Leadership, which is a special issue dedicated to educators' mental health. In the article, the authors describe the ways that math teachers circles support teacher renewal and sustain teachers as whole persons. They offer math teachers circles as a model of "professional loving communities.”

To read more about the impact that math teachers' circles can have and how they can work in adult basic education:

Problem Posing & Problem Solving in a Math Teachers Circle (COABE Journal Spring 2017)
The NYC Math Exchange Group: Helping Teaching Change the Way They Teach Math (National Center for the Study of Adult Learning & Literacy: September 2000)

The Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy (TIAN) Bundles are free, downloadable resources for ABE math teachers developed by the Adult Numeracy Center at TERC. Each bundle is designed for teachers to explore math together with their peers, have examples of activities that can be used with students, and read and reflect on research on numeracy instruction. The bundles are (1) Number Sense: Flexibility & Fluency, (2) Operation and Symbol Sense, (3) Number Sense: Integers, (4) Algebraic Thinking, (5) Geometric Thinking.

Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy (TIAN) Resources

ANN Under 10

Between 2017 and 2019, the Adult Numeracy Network offered ABE/HSE math teachers a platform to take 10 minutes and share their experiences, their lessons learned, and something they are passionate and curious about in their teaching. Each talk ends with a call-to-action to explore the ideas in our own classrooms. Those talks are recorded and the recordings are available on this site - Watch the ANN Under 10 talks.

Watch the video with a colleague.

What resonates with you? What stood out to you?
What is one thing you will try? How will you respond to the Call-to-Action?

If you don't have any colleagues, that's ok too. There is a link to an ANN Forum discussion next to each ANN Under 10 video. Share what you're thinking there and connect with teachers in our community, including the teachers giving the talks!

Japanese Lesson Study in ABE

Japanese Lesson Study is a model for teachers to collaborate and focus on and learn from student thinking.

“The idea is simple: teachers come together with a shared question regarding their students’ learning, plan a lesson to make student learning visible, and examine and discuss what they observe. Through multiple iterations of the process, teachers have many opportunities to discuss student learning and how their teaching affects it.” - Aki Murata, 2011

Here are some resources for organizing a Japanese-style Lesson study in ABE/HSE:

Building Our Own Expertise - Japanese Lesson Study in Adult Basic Education: A Case Study by Eric Appleton

Japanese Lesson Study: A Model for Teacher-Led Professional Development (2016 NCTM Regional Conference presentation materials) by Eric Appleton, Solange Farina, Tyler Holzer, & Mark Trushkowsky

Models of Lesson Studies in Adult Education Classrooms

In 2014, group of adult education teachers from community-based organizations across NYC did a research lesson study on proportional reasoning and created a wikipage to serve as a model for others. You can read about the steps of their process and find all their resources here: YDI Math Lesson Study.
In 2017, a group of adult education teachers at Lehman College's Adult Learning Center did a research lesson on an exploration of functions through geometry. Read about their process and resources here: Lehman Math Lesson Study.